Ìfé, a Nigerian film about two women in love, reassures African queer women
- Ìfé, which focuses on two women who fall in love over a three-day date, stands almost as a reassurance - “It’s okay; we have also been through this, and you are not alone,” writes our Sexual Minorities Editor, Florence Kyohangirwe.
The music is certainly the first thing to grab your attention about Ìfé: the voice of Nigerian singer, Temmie Ovwasa enveloping you in recognition, so that you feel like you have been here before, at this moment, at this time.
Ìfé is a love story about two lesbians—the titular character played by Uzoamaka Aniunoh, and Adaora (Cindy Amadi)—one open about her sexuality, the other still in the closet and afraid to lose her family over her orientation.
This scenario is one that hits close to home for most LGBTQI+ relationships in Uganda, where I am from, and across Africa.
The characters meet for a date that ends up spanning three days, during which they discuss life and love as lesbians while examining the different attitudes of their families, as it concerns their sexual identities.
An important aspect the film highlights is the need to be more understanding of queer people who can’t be “out and proud”. It borders on the necessity of compassion, which many people lack because they refuse to realize the privilege that inherently comes with having a support structure amongst friends, family, and colleagues.
While visibility is the ideal objective and certainly does have its advantages, to blame queer people who are not able to be as visible for their own invisibility is to absolve the system that sustains the need for them to stay hidden in the first place.
The film is set in present-day Nigeria, which like most parts of the African continent is deeply homophobic.
In recent times, though, people’s attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people seem to be changing.
A 2019 Social Perception Survey on LGBTQ+ Rights in Nigeria showed a gradual increase in acceptance of LGBTQ+ persons. The results revealed that 60% of Nigerians would not accept a family member who is LGBTQ+, significant progress from the 83% who said they would not in 2017.
As much as Ìfé’s storyline might be triggering for many queer people that have been in similar relationships, it bears a hopeful message, a reassurance: “It’s okay; we have also been through this, and you are not alone.”
“I just wanted to tell a story that Nigerian queer women can relate to, and as a storyteller. . . what’s always important is representation,” said writer and director, Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, in an interview on YouTube.
“I want people to be able to see themselves and I did that by making sure that both characters represented a lot of Nigerian queer women.”
Pamela Adie, the film’s producer, and an LGBTQ+ rights activist, equally says that the film was made to increase visibility and to share the experiences of queer Nigerian women with the Nigerian audience.
Pamela Adie and Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim have, amidst threats of jail time and the refusal of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) to approve the film for theatrical distribution, proceeded to make the film available online.
Ìfé is a film with a two-pronged purpose: helping to shape the future of Nollywood as bold and inclusive, and being the movie for queer Nigerian women, and queer African women, too, to see themselves, most realistically and honestly, the way we have always wanted to be seen.
